What We're Doing to Ukraine is Evil

President Trump's actions are going far beyond negligence.

It was just a few weeks ago that President Trump publicly declared that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “dictator,” and that Ukraine was to blame for Russia invading them. Since then, America’s betrayal of our war-torn ally, and our embrace of their genocidal assailant, has only taken further shape.

We’ve seen the United States oppose (and lobby U.S allies to oppose) a United Nations resolution correctly recognizing that Russia started the war and remains the aggressor. We’ve read reports of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering an end to U.S. cyber-offensive operations against Russia. We’ve listened to Trump and members of his cabinet propose lifting sanctions on Russia, and working some “economic development deals” with Putin. And we’ve of course heard our president spew all kinds of Russian propaganda, while publicly underestimating Ukraine’s position while overestimating Russia’s.

Ukraine has never been the lost cause that the Trump administration and much of the Modern Right has been entirely too eager to portray it as. As I wrote last week:

We hear a lot about how Ukraine can’t win this war. I’d say it’s become conventional wisdom, but it’s really been conventional wisdom since the day the invasion began. The widespread belief, as many may remember, was that the country would fall within weeks — perhaps even days. Three years later, Ukraine still holds its capital, four of its five largest cities, and over 80% of its territory… all without a single foreign soldier fighting on their behalf. Russia, in the meantime, has lost four to five times more soldiers than Ukraine, has had to import troops, and has been going broke.

Next came the disastrous Oval Office meeting, where Zelenskyy had the gall not to wear a suit while calling to attention Vladimir Putin’s inarguable history of not holding true to his word — an apparent show of such disrespect and defiance toward the Trump administration that our president decided Zelenskyy’s country needed to be taught an extremely painful lesson.

That lesson has come in the form of Trump suspending U.S. military aid to Ukraine, and cutting off U.S. intelligence to the country… including early warnings of incoming missile attacks, and access to strategic satellite imagery.

Russia has been taking full advantage of Ukraine being shivved and partially blinded by the U.S., upping their strikes on civilian areas and Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure.

“As a result of this pause, there are hundreds of dead Ukrainians,” a Ukraine military officer told TIME Magazine. “It’s really causing an advantage for the enemy on the front line.”

Over the weekend, Trump acknowledged that his directives have indeed emboldened and advantaged Putin, cavalierly stating that Russia was “doing what anybody would do.” Trump added, “I think we're doing very well with Russia. But right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine.”

You read that right. “Bombing the hell out of Ukraine,” according to Trump, is the logical and reasonable thing for Russia to be doing. Ukraine, on the other hand, is who is being problematic.

It should be noted that in recent days, Trump has floated the idea of punitive sanctions and tariffs against Russia. Unfortunately, with every public statement on the matter, he has pivoted back to describing Ukraine — not Russia — as the obstacle to peace (even with Russia vowing not to concede anything in peace negotiations).

When asked specifically why he isn’t providing Ukraine with air defenses to fend off Russia’s escalation, Trump answered, “Because I have to know that they want to settle. I don’t know that they want to settle. If they don’t want to settle, we’re out of there.”

Until that question is satisfactorily answered in Trump’s mind (if it even can be), I guess it’s bombs away for Russia… regardless if Ukraine signs the much talked about mineral deal with the United States.

I don’t know how anyone can argue, at this point, that America hasn’t switched sides in this conflict. The Russians certainly recognize what has happened.

"The new U.S. Administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“We support everything Trump is doing,” said a Russian State TV spokesperson. “We love how he is behaving.”

Our allies also see the situation for what it is. America’s telegraphed retreat and eroding reliability on the world stage is already stoking fresh talks of nuclear proliferation.

Even if Trump truly does desire for lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine (there’s a strong argument that he doesn’t), it can’t be emphasized enough that what our president is currently doing amounts to far more than simple negligence.

By punitively stripping Ukraine of long relied-on defenses (that he could turn back on at the snap of a finger), Trump is consciously enabling and emboldening Russia to more effectively and efficiently destroy Ukrainian targets (including civilian targets) and kill more innocent people.

That’s not spin. That’s not Trump Derangement Syndrome. By Trump’s own acknowledgement, that’s exactly what’s happening.

I ask anyone reading this, whether you’re a Trump supporter or critic: How is this anything other than an act of evil?